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Pea Soup

A hearty soup made from dried split peas, ham bone, onion, and optional milk or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Pea Soup

Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the dried split peas in cold water for 3 hours, then drain.

Cook and strain

  1. Boil the peas in 2½ quarts of water with the onion and ham bone until soft.

  2. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

Season and serve

  1. Season with salt, pepper, and celery salt if desired.

  2. For a soup, dilute with milk or cream.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Peas + celerytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Dried split peas
Break down during boiling to thicken the liquid into a body-rich soup.
Ham bone
Releases savory flavor and fat into the water during long simmering.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth as it softens in the cooking liquid.
Milk or cream
Adds richness and a smoother, softer mouthfeel when diluted into the soup.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a sieve. Pushing the soft peas through a sieve breaks down their cell walls and removes skins and fibers, giving the smooth texture a split pea soup needs.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, onion, ham, pepper, milk):

  1. Celerythe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, onion, ham, pepper, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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